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NEWS:
Adopting Pediatric Readiness Standards Improves Survival In Hospital Emergency Departments
Emergency departments that have the highest levels of coordination of health care, personnel, procedures and medical equipment needed to care for ill and injured children have far higher rates of survival than hospitals with low readiness, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Researchers found that more than 1,400 children’s deaths may have been prevented if hospital emergency departments had adopted national pediatric care readiness standards as laid out by the National Pediatric Readiness Project(link is external). The six-year study of 983 emergency departments in 11 states followed nearly 800,000 children.
The National Pediatric Readiness Project was established to ensure that all emergency departments have the coordination of health care, personnel, procedures and medical equipment needed to care for ill and injured children. According to the project’s
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Low-Grade Inflammation May Cause Arterial Stiffness And Preclinical Atherosclerosis In Otherwise Healthy Adolescents
Early vascular damage and atherosclerosis in adolescents may be caused by low-grade inflammation, a paper published in the Journal of Applied Physiology concludes. The study was conducted in collaboration between the University of British Columbia in Canada, the University of Bristol in the UK, the University of Exeter in the UK, the University of Illinois in the US, and the University of Eastern Finland.
In adults, it is known that low-grade inflammation is a major cause of circulatory, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, and nervous system diseases and it can also get worse due to ageing and poor lifestyle habits. However, in healthy growing children and adolescents, it remains unclear whether low-grade inflammation contributes to premature vascular damage.
“Contrary to some earlier findings, we now know that premature inflammation-induced vascular damage in adolescents, such as highe
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Acupuncture And Acupressure May Help Alleviate Pain And Anxiety In Patients Undergoing Surgery For Gynecologic Cancer
Patients undergoing surgery for ovarian and endometrial cancers often experience anxiety and pain. A new study indicates that acupressure before surgery may help reduce anxiety and following this up with acupuncture during surgery may provide an added benefit of lessening severe pain. The research is published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
A total of 99 patients with gynecologic cancers participated in the study co-led by Eran Ben-Arye, MD, of Lin Medical Center, in Haifa, Israel—45 in Group A, 25 in Group B, and 29 in Group C. Group A participants received acupressure-related touch and relaxation treatments that began within 3 hours prior to surgery and continued until the patient began undergoing general anesthesia; they then received acupuncture therapy during surgery involving points shown to be effective for reducing pain. Group
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Balancing Spousal Loss And Career Is A One-Two Punch For Health Of Widowed Individuals
Coping with the loss of a spouse while dealing with the 9-to-5 grind can take a serious toll on the health of widows or widowers, according to new research from the Biobehavioral Mechanisms Explaining Disparities Lab (BMED) at Rice University.
“Employment and Family Income in Psychological and Immune Outcomes During Bereavement ” examines the mental and physical health of individuals who lost a spouse three months prior to being surveyed for the study. The researchers were specifically interested in how employment status and income affected health outcomes of surviving partners.
The researchers found that surviving spouses who worked had overall higher perceived stress levels and bodily inflammation (tracked through blood work looking at levels of specific markers of inflammation) than retirees who had lost their partner. High levels of stress and chronic inflammation are a good indica
